Category: Beach

Whinstone at Massney Braes

28/8/2026

To follow on from the previous post about Massney Braes, the map below from 1853 clearly shows a significant area of "whinstone" on the shore to the west of the braes. This rocky outcrop, also seen in the photograph above, provided a ready supply of dense, hard-wearing stone, which proved to be ideal for in the construction of houses and other buildings in local area during the nineteenth century.

The term 'whin' has long been used in Scotland to describe any hard dark rock. There are competing theories which attempt to explain the origin of the word. One relates to the abundance of gorse bushes close to certain areas of whinstone - as these bushes were also known locally as ‘whin’ bushes. in fact, the phrase "benty, tussocky and ripe with whin" was the famous historical description used to describe the rugged, natural terrain of Lundin Golf Course in its very early days. 'Whin' in that case referred to gorse.

An example of a dwelling built from Massney Braes whinstone is Bourtree Brae House on Crescent Road, pictured above. This house was written about in the 1868 book entitled "Villa and Cottage Architecture: Select Examples of Country and Suburban Residences Recently Erected" published by Blackie & Son, which states:

"The external walls are two feet thick, and built of whinstone rubble. obtained by breaking up the boulders strewn along the shore of the firth".

The book goes on to note that, in contrast, the architectural details of the house (sills, lintels, wall corners, etc) were made of freestone from Grange Quarry at Burntisland. The hard whinstone was difficult to dress into shaped blocks and so a different stone that was easier to work was used for the finer detail. The warm, dark brown stone found on the beach close to the Lundin Golf Club certainly appears a close match to the house façade and in this example, the material had very little distance to travel from source to final destination.

Stone was still being taken from this stretch of beach by stone masons decades later. In 1880, legal action was taken to stop Thomas Tivendale, mason, from "taking stone for building purposes from the seashore opposite Mr Macrae's property". Mr Macrae was Colin George Macrae W.S. of Drum Lodge.

In the absence of a clear origin of the name 'Massney' in relation to the Braes, I often wonder whether it might derive from the word 'mason' as the brae was used by the stone masons of days gone by to move building materials off the beach. Opinions welcome on this idea - or evidence of an alternative meaning to the name.

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Massney Braes

21/8/2026

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Massney Braes has long been known as a beauty spot. Its location between the former Lundin Links train station and Largo Harbour saw an influx of beach-going day trippers and summer visitors after the railway opened in 1857. Beach huts sprung up along this stretch of coast and in the 1930s the site was the focus of a series of improvements to enhance the experience of the many visitors that continued to flock there. In more recent decades, Massney Braes has also been known as the site of Pictish burials. In 1965 a Pictish cemetery was uncovered following winter storms. These days Fife Council describes the area as follows:

"A semi-natural stretch of greenspace located along the coast. A woodland strip occupies the elevated north side, while coastal grassland and scrub slope down to the shore. A main pathway leads east and west through the site from the main entrance on Drummochy Road, and more informal paths run through the grassland, forming part of the Fife Coastal Path".

However, there is another important aspect to the history of Massney Braes. During the 18th and 19th centuries this small location was an intensely industrialised site, featuring coal pits, a saltworks and a coastal quarry. A map has recently been made publicly available dated 1853 and labelled Mineral Plan for Lundin and Aithernie, which can be viewed in full here. This plan produced by mining engineer David Landale highlights coal workings labelled Aithernie, Pilmuir, Lundin and Drummochy, as well as locations of additional bores and trial pits.

Note that this plan was produced the year after the Standard Life Assurance Company purchased the Lundin and Aithernie estates). An extract of the map, showing the Massney Braes area, is shown below, next to a present day aerial view. At the top of the map lies Fir Park and the villages of Lundin Mill and Emsdorf. To the far right there is Largo Harbour and Pier along with the buildings of Drummochy. To the left of those buildings, the coastline runs west past the former salt works panhouse (the rectangle located below the letter P.) towards what is now Lundin Golf Links.

The eight black lines running from the coast represent seams of the Drummochy coalfield, while the letters in black (R, P and Q) represent bores and the letters in purple (A, B, C, D and E) represent trial pits. Just above those annotations are a series of small circles marked as 'Old Pits'. The latter likely date back to the days of the saltworks when the coal required to fire the salt pans had to be situated very close by in order to make such a venture viable.

Marked on the aerial view above are:

1. Area of Whinstone rock
2. Vicinity of the coal seams
3. Site of old pits
4. Former salt panhouse site

Back in 1898, evidence of these old pits was unearthed following a storm. As the Fife News of 22 October 1898 reported below "along the coast line in many places coal seams cropped out on the shore. Old residenters recall the existence of an "in-going eye" used before the days of pit shafts - still working in suitable circumstances - for winning the coal to the west of Mr Horne's workshop" (the workshop being in the former salt panhouse). The entrance to this old mine had fallen in some years before and now another similar one had opened up.

An "ingoing eye" (often spelled "ingaun ee") is a Scottish mining term for the mouth of a drift mine or an adit. It refers to the horizontal entrance driven directly into a hillside or coal seam outcropping at the surface, which contrasts with a traditional vertical mine shaft. These were typically in places such as valleys or coastlines where erosion had exposed the coal veins. The diagram below from Coal Mining in Scotland by E.D. Hyde illustrates this system. Coal or shale type material can still be picked up along the shore at Massney Braes today (see samples below).

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James Macmaster RSW RBA (1856-1913)

27/6/2026

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The above painting, entitled At Largo Bay, is by James Kennedy Macmaster, who was born on 10 March 1856 at Mill Street in Catrine, Ayrshire to woollen draper David Macmaster and his wife Jane Reid. The piece is dated 1889 and depicts the old shorefront buildings close to the Crusoe Hotel, which were demolished around 1890 to make way for "Edina View", "Rock View" and "Beach House" (new developments created by Andrew Selkirk (1836-1909).

MacMaster's mother was widowed soon after the birth of youngest child James and when she in turn died in 1868, twelve year old James, went to live with four of his mother's unmarried siblings, including her brother John Reid - a cotton manufacturer - at Shawlands. After John's death, James continued to live in the household of his uncle Robert Reid (a wine merchant) and aunts Elizabeth and Janet. By the census of 1881, James was 24 years old and described as an Artist Painter Landscape.

Soon afterwards, James relocated to Fife, inititally living in Kilconquhar. On 25 June 1884 James married Cellardyke-born Euphemia Nicol in St Monans, The couple settled in St Monans and went on to have three children during their time there - Euphemia in 1887, Robert in 1889 and Jane in 1892. In 1885 James was elected to the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour and to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1890. The Macmaster family were recorded in the 1891 census at Station Road in St Monans where James was described as a Marine and Landscape Artist. In 1891 one of his pieces was bought by the Prince of Wales. During his time in Fife, James painted many local villages including Cellardyke, Anstruther, St Monans, Pittenweem, Crail, Elie, Dysart, West Wemyss and of course Largo (some detail of which is shown below).

The above 1889 watercolour of Largo Bay was not the first time that Macmaster had captured this view. A very similar piece from 1884 was created for the Dundee Fine Art Exhibition and was noted in the 26 December 1894 Dundee Advertiser below. This was named The Birthplace of Alexander Selkirk - Robinson Crusoe.

By 1897, James and his family had moved to Ayr and the census of 1901 found them at Monument Road in Ayr. By 1911, they were at 36 St Leonard's Road in Ayr and that is where James died on 5 April 1913, aged 57 years. The piece below is from 7 April 1913 Dundee Evening Telegraph.

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Victoria House

29/5/2026

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The picture postcard shown above was published by Young, Stationer & Newsagent, Lundin Links. It features Victoria House, which was built by local contractor Walter Horne around 1907 as a boarding establishment. This photograph likely dates to the late 1920s (when the business was known as Swan's Victoria) or the early 1930s when Agnes Peebles Watters (nee Greig) ran the 'private hotel'. By the time that this image was captured, the open verandas originally at ground and first floor level on the right hand side had been closed in to form bay windows.

During Mrs Watters time, the advert further below for the hotel appeared in the tourist guide for Largo area. Within the grounds of the hotel itself, visitors had access to a 9-hole putting course, clock golf and a quoit tennis court. Notice that in the photograph detail below, there is a well-dressed chap with a golf club. He is either having a go at the putting course or a game of clock golf. A tall flag pole can also been seen behind the man, by the fence.

Clock golf or clock putting, was a Victorian garden game that involved a circular arrangement of twelve cast iron numbered markers, resembling the numbers on a clock face. The game was set up with the numbers (often Roman numerals) placed in a circle, to represent each hour of the clock. A hole (target) is placed a few feet off centre, in order to vary the distance from each figure to the hole.

Players take turns putting from each of the twelve positions, starting at 1 o’clock and moving sequentially around the circle (which would ideally measure around 40 feet in diameter). The objective was to get the ball into the hole with the fewest strokes possible from each position. After completing a full round, the player with the fewest total strokes wins. Clock golf was popular as it required minimal space and could be enjoyed by people of all ages.

Quoit tennis was another garden game for 2 or 4 players (singles or doubles) where a court is marked out on the grass and a net put up in the centre. The rules of the game were similar to those of tennis but a rope quoit replaced the tennis ball and hands were used rather than racquets. Quoits were served and returned across the net and points lost for quoits hitting the net or going out of the court.

When guests at the Victoria were not enjoying such garden-based games, they were only a stone's throw away from the beach (with access to the boarding house's private bathing boxes) and from Lundin golf course. In the evening there might be a dance, a whist drive or indoor sports. Entertainment for all the family - happy days!

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Birth Announcement Postcard

16/5/2025

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The above postcard is postmarked Leven 28 August 1912 and was addressed to Mrs William Wallace, 116 Easter Road, Edinburgh. The sender was Maggie of 2 Seagate, Leven and her message was as follows:

Dear Aunt, A little brother arrived here on Monday morning, both mother and baby are keeping well. Maggie

On the front of the postcard was a faded image taken from the Links at Leven, looking towards Lundin Links and Largo. More interesting is the large "BB" written in blue pencil over the message side of the card. Was this code for Baby Boy? Could this have been something added by the postal service - an annotation to indicate a special message? If you know anything of this practice, please comment.

Postcards specially designed for birth announcements did exist at the time. Some examples are shown below. Most of them consisted of imagery such as cabbage patches, storks and chimneys!

Who was this "little brother" and who was Maggie? The birth record below provides the answer. John McLean MacDonald was born at 2 Seagate, Leven on Monday 26 August 1912. His parents were Hector MacDonald, a dock labourer, and Isabella Doig. His elder sister Margaret Balfour MacDonald was born in 1898, so was aged around 14 at the time of his birth. The family (with five children) still lived at 2 Seagate at the time of the 1921 census. Baby John lived to the age of 84, passing away in 1996 in Leven.

The annotated image below picks out some recognisable features from the postcard image:

1. Aithernie House (Old Manor Hotel)
2. Lundin Links Station
3. Elmwood and Ravenswood
4. Lundin Golf Club House

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The Castle

1/11/2024

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The tiny dwelling, pictured above on the day of the unveiling of the Crusoe statue on 11 December 1885, once stood on Lower Largo's Main Street. It was situated where the 'Malagan' sculpture now stands. Situated between the 'Forth View' shops and 'Cliff House' (now known as White House), the dwelling was named 'The Castle' in the census of 1891 (see extract below). It was unoccupied at the time of that census but appears to have had a series of short term tenants prior to then.

The name 'The Castle' is an ironic one for this diminutive structure but the name also has some basis, given its elevated position above the beach behind a high wall. It stood alone in its own plot, in contrast to neighbouring terraced dwellings and can be seen in a wider context in the postcard view below (white building to the right).

On Monday 17 October 1898 a "terrific gale" hit the east coast of Scotland, resulting in loss of life and property and a string of ship wrecks. The headlines from the Dundee Courier of 19 October above reflect the impact along the Forth and Tay - the coast "strewn with wrecks". It was this storm that brought about the demise of The Castle. A piece from the Leven Advertiser of 20 October sets the scene by describing the inundation of Lower Largo...

"The tide and fierce billows washed the main street, and at the harbour and the Crusoe Hotel the thoroughfare was impassable, the hotel for a time being entirely isolated. Each window had to be boarded up and the door barricaded and made watertight. At Drummochy the sea made a clean sweep over the embankments and menaced the houses, and rising higher than the footbridge, tore up the roadway. Thousands of tons of earth and rock were torn away; right on to the links the face of the shore was almost entirely changed. Largo pier has suffered from many gales but never has it presented such a ruined appearance as today."

The article goes on to mention how many outhouses abutting the beach were damaged and the one property which was completely destroyed...

"This was a dwelling owned by Mr Selkirk, and tenanted by Mrs Cooper. It was undermined and the wall fell in - at present only the gable next to the street is still standing."

Other houses had tiles stripped off and windows driven in but for this little house the damage was terminal. The photograph below shows how vulnerable the building (and the outhouses close to it) would have been to a raging sea.

The tenant of the property, Mrs Cooper, was the widow of grocer Thomas Cooper. Thomas Cooper had died earlier in 1898 from meningitis aged 36 years. His widow Helen Cooper (nee Mitchell) carried on running the licensed grocery business at Forthview after his death, and continued to do so after the storm. While she and her children lived above the grocer shop, she perhaps used the destroyed property as a store or sublet it to summer visitors. Helen Cooper went on to die in tragic circumstances five years later, in 1903, aged 33 years. The grocer shop was later run by Peter Scott and then William Gould. The shop can be seen in the postcard view below - between Mrs Davie's shop and the Co-operative. It is now 56 Main Street. Part of the plot where The Castle stood can also be seen below, on the far right foreground.

The site of The Castle was not rebuilt upon but became the garden of the house on the opposite side of the road. Nowadays it is adorned with the striking 'Malagan' sculpture (2008) and a decorative garden gate - the work of local artist Alan Faulds. On his website, Alan explains that Malagan was inspired by a trip to Lithuania in 2006, in which tall wooden roadside structures named Roofed Poles caught his attention.

Speaking to Fife Today in 2008, Alan explained that “they were sometimes erected to commemorate a particular event...for example, during Soviet control, a deportation of someone to Siberia might result in the erection of a Roofed Pole. Usually it would be swiftly removed by the authorities.” He continued "I wanted to make something that carried that power.”

The finished piece incorporates a variety of influences from Mexican, Hindu, Baltic, Indian and ancient Greek art and the name Malagan relates to sculptures from Papua New Guinea. I wonder what the former tenants of The Castle would make of the creative use of this space today.

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Main Street 1960s Postcard View

25/10/2024

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Above is a 'then and now' comparison of the west end of Lower Largo's Main Street. In the black and white 1960s view, cars are parked on the left side of the street, leaving the right side clear for pedestrians. Nowadays cars only park on the right and spaces are generally at a premium. Several attics have been converted during the period between the two pictures, with dormer windows added to a few homes. In the middle distance, the height of Alexandra House (where the Rio Cafe was) has increased over time. That extra storey was added in 1965, dating the postcard to before then. The Crusoe Hotel comes into view at the end of the street then and now.

Close inspection of the detail in the distance reveals the 'Wall's' ice-cream sign that hung outside Potter's Newsagent on Defoe Place. There newspapers, groceries and postcards were on sale and there was a Post Office and a public telephone inside. In fact, the early 1960s postcard featured was probably bought from this shop, as the sender was based directly over the street at Edina View (where a cross marks their location). The reverse side of the postcard is shown below. It is stamped 22 August 1967 and was sent to Kent. An X marks the 'boys bedroom' in the upper flat within Edina View, The message reads:

This is a new card I have got - not great but it shows the back of our house. Weather just grand - only 3 wet days so far. On the beach since 10am this morning except for lunch time at Crusoe. Just off to phone you and it is still glorious. Bob off today, Mr and Mrs L here for 10 days. Love to all, Muriel and gang.

It sounds very much like a holiday maker that is writing but the birth notice below from the Leven Mail in December 1961 suggests that Bob and Muriel were full-time residents of 2 Edina View.

Annotated in the image below are Edina View (1), Rock View (2) and Beach House (3). These flats had long been a popular venue for summer visitors, having been built for Andrew Selkirk in phases circa 1890, on the site of some old and run down properties. Lists of summer visitors - like the example further below from 25 August 1898 Leven Advertiser - show their popularity at the time with folks escaping the city for a few weeks.

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Orry from the Beach

30/8/2024

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The above pair of images show a 'then and now' comparison of the view from the beach at Lower Largo, up through the Orry towards Goodsir House. The black and white postcard view dates to the 1940s, after the designation of the Orry as a "regulation parking place" by the District Council in 1939. There are only a couple of cars parked there though, in spite of the busyness of the beach. The present day view features far more cars - and dinghies. The Largo Bay Sailing Club building, to the right of Sunnyside, is a later addition. The club was first mooted in 1959. Following a period of fund raising, the club built its permanent club house (pictured below) in 1968. Another noticeable change is the number of attic conversions carried out over the decades, as people seek to maximise their sea views.

In the zoomed in pair of images above, there are three distinct layers of housing. The late Victorian homes, with their bay windows, sit behind the sea wall (Laurel Bank on the left and Sunnyside on the right). They replaced older structures that previously stood on either side of the Orry. Beyond that, in the centre, on the far side of Main Street is the much older Goodsir House, named after its distinguished former owner Dr John Goodsir. Sitting on higher ground beyond that, are the late 1920s dwellings of Durham Terrace. The detail below shows the scene to the east and a beach busy with activity, including an improvised game of cricket.

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Summer's Here!

12/7/2024

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The scene of an incredibly busy beach in front of Drum Park in this 1930s postcard, exemplifies Largo's popularity as a summer destination during the interwar period. Literally hundreds of people are packed into this small area on a glorious day. Perhaps on this particular day a 'picnic party' had swollen the usual number of summer visitors. In the summer of 1933, for example, there were thirteen large picnic parties officially using the site adjacent to Massney Braes. By the 1936 season, there were bookings for every Saturday.

Local newspapers of the time noted that this stretch of coast "enjoyed a remarkable measure of popularity". This popularity was nurtured by the newly formed Largo Parish Community Council. Their programme of foreshore improvements included a "water supply, a convenient fireplace and a comfortable shelter" according to the 23 June 1936 Leven Advertiser piece, below. Other amenities added around this time included public conveniences, a drinking fountain, litter bins and a pitch for mobile refreshment vendors. Twelve new benches were also placed around the district in 1935.

The 30 July 1935 Leven Advertiser snippet below highlighted how large crowds of day-trippers impacted upon local bus services. It would seem that the concept of queuing was unheard of at the time. Pushing and jostling was the norm - especially at Largo Harbour's bus stop - prompting calls for the supervised introduction of a queuing system!

Such was the demand for leisure facilities that a longstanding desire for a swimming pool for the Parish was reinvigorated. Soon an engineer was consulted and a scheme devised which readily gathered momentum. The piece below from the 26 March 1935 Leven Advertiser confidently tells of how the scheme was "awaiting the consent of Sir John Gilmour".

A Largo Bay Bathing Pool Association was formed and, on 30 July 1935, a public meeting took place in the Temperance Hall. An update from the scheme's temporary committee was provided, a draft constitution adopted and office bearers appointed along with a management committee. Discussion also took place around the best means of raising the cost of the construction of the pool. Some fundraising activities were proposed along with a plan to encourage subscribers to pledge money for the scheme. However, as matters advanced it became clear that early quotes for the work had been unrealistic. The far higher investment needed to make the pool storm-proof led to the scheme being reluctantly dropped (see 18 February 1936 Dundee Evening Telegraph extract below).

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Edwardian Excursion Party

28/6/2024

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The busy beach scene above has all the hallmarks of an "excursion party". In other words, it looks like a party of day-trippers, enjoying a much-anticipated visit to the beach. The location is the beach at Massney Braes, looking towards Largo Pier. Note the boat masts close to the pier in the background and the salmon stake nets in the sea to the far right. Dressed in their finery, this would have been an important social occasion and a special treat for the group. Their attire may look rather out of place to the modern-day eye, however, it was normal then for ladies to take to the sands in full length skirts and flamboyant hats, while the gents wore three-piece suits with ties. Children were a little less formal. Most boys appear to have on short trousers - perfect for paddling or being buried in sand. The party of at least fifty people included all ages. Close inspection shows a few donkeys are on the beach, giving the youngsters rides along the sand (see detail below).

Probably the group would have arrived by train at Lundin Links station and made their way over the iron bridge to the beach at Massney Braes, bringing a picnic with them. This could potentially be a church outing, or perhaps a society of some kind. The example below, mentioned in the 14 June 1906 Leven Advertiser, is of an excursion to Lundin Links by the Markinch Parish Church Sabbath School. Like the group in the photograph, they enjoyed games and races on the sands. In their case a 'special train' was laid on for the occasion, suggesting a sizeable group similar to the one shown. On occasion, a band would accompany these groups on their outing, to provide musical entertainment throughout the day.

Not all visiting groups arrived by train however. The 26 July 1907 East of Fife Record piece below describes how a picnic party a hundred strong from Colinsburgh United Free Church travelled to the seaside at Lundin Links in carts, in "delightful weather". Not all such trips were blessed with favourable weather conditions. Sometimes groups had to retreat into a suitable indoor venue at short notice. However, both the group in the image above, and a similar group shown in a different image below (at the same location but looking west), were fortunate.